The Three Musketeers
by Meriem Clayton
Summary: Spoilers for Season 8 and 9. Surprising new allies in the fight against the Ori turn up.


This story was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt has been made to copyright any characters which may not have been originally created by the author, and no profit is made from this work of fiction. Any original characters and the stories themselves are the property of the author.

Thanks to my betas, Monica and Jess.

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"Off-world activation," Walter announced, surprised and concerned. There were no teams due back for hours. Since the appropriate code had been transmitted from the other end, he wasn't worried that the activation represented a hostile incursion. He was, though, half expecting to see a group of battered soldiers come through, part of an SG team in trouble, perhaps half carrying one or two wounded. Given the unscheduled nature of the activation, there was a squad with rifles at ready. Everyone was a bit tense with anticipation, but no one expected what actually happened.

Two women in their late teens stepped onto the ramp. They were both in black leather and, instead of it screaming out Biker Babe, they managed to make it look stylish. They were tall and nicely rounded and the male portion of the guard squad, at least, was delighted to see them. They not only appeared to be human, but they looked Tauri. Perhaps it was the RayBans. Walter was mystified. When General Landry materialized in the control room at Walter's elbow within a minute after he was called, he, too, was out of ideas.

"Have you ever seen them before?" Landry asked, hoping that these were just two among the many personnel he had yet to meet in the sprawling base.

"Never and they don't really seem military somehow, sir," Walter responded, observing the definite attitude coming across from the two young women below.

In the gate room, the one with long shiny black hair flowing down her back was attempting to get a conversation going with the guards continuing to hold guns aimed at them. "So, how often do you find you need to clean that thing?" she asked a young corporal, indicating his P-90. "Or is it self-cleaning, like a, I don't know, like an oven?"

Her companion, whose long hair was a rich russet red, said, "Why not just use a zat? What is this fascination with things that go boom?" She turned toward her companion and said, "I've never understood that." She reflected a moment and then observed to the world in general, "I think it's a guy thing." She zeroed in on one of the women in the detail. "How do you feel about all that noisiness that comes with guns? Isn't a knife, for instance, more elegant?" Her conversational sally fell on stony ground.

The brunette remarked to the redhead in a stage whisper, "I don't think they're a particularly chatty group."

Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell and Dr. Daniel Jackson had joined Landry in the control room by now. Landry said, "Let's have the ladies searched for weapons and then brought to the conference room above the control room." He raised an eyebrow at Cam who was fighting the urge to say something cute. "I didn't ask for volunteers on the searching, Mitchell."

Landry, Cam, and Daniel were ranged around one end of the conference table by the time the two women were escorted in. The RayBans were gone and the men noticed that they both had strikingly beautiful blue eyes. There was something awfully familiar to Daniel and Cam about the way the brunette said to the departing guards, "The searching's been fun. Next time, I get to search you. Particularly you," she added, waggling a finger at a nice looking blond soldier.

"Well, hello all," the redhead said. "Isn't this cozy? You mind if we sit?" She proceeded to take a chair without pausing to wait for their response.

The brunette was circling the room. "I've heard so much about the place from Mum. I've just got to give it a once over before I settle."

The seated redhead said in a no-nonsense tone, "Dani, you're going over to the annoying side again. Sit."

"Don't we have our panties in a knot," the brunette said but she sat down, going all the way around the table to sit immediately next to Cam. She leaned over and whispered loudly, "Hi. I'm so glad we're going to be sitting next to each other," and then winked at him. Cam blinked rapidly and found himself without anything to say.

Landry was wondering how a meeting that had just begun could so quickly have gotten out of control. "You're not from Earth, correct?"

The brunette said, "Shouldn't we all introduce ourselves before the personal questions start?"

Landry was just a hair away from rolling his eyes but he restrained himself. "Fine. I'm General Hank Landry, in command here, and these are Dr. Daniel Jackson and Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell. And you are?"

The redhead said, "I'm Louisa and this is my half-sister, Dani."

Dani added, "That's one n and an i."

Landry said, "No last name?"

Dani said, "None that we're giving you at this point. Anyway, one name was good enough for Cher and Annubis. Besides, I'm rather planning on going right to a first name basis with some of the people at the table." She mouthed the words, "That would be you," to Cam.

"Okay," Landry said, "back to my original question. Where are you from and why are you here?"

"That is so not your original question," Dani said.

Louisa felt the need to step in again, "Stop it Dani. Please. For… the …love …of … God."

At that point, the door opened and Samantha Carter entered the room, slightly breathless. "My apologies, General Landry," she said, heading for the vacant seat next to Daniel.

"No problem," Landry said. "We were just getting acquainted. This is Louisa and Dani," he announced. He immediately tacked on, "That's one n and an i in Dani."

Dani smiled brilliantly at him and said, "That's so sweet that you remembered."

As Sam sat down, there was just the briefest, tiniest, special smile flashed in Daniel's direction. The two visitors both picked up on it and exchanged a knowing look. Louisa said, "Actually we're sort of from here. We were both conceived here and I actually spent most of my childhood here."

"Eeww," Dani said. "Do they REALLY want to know where we were conceived? SHE's a little straight-laced for that sort of chatter."

Louisa just continued on. It was clear that Dani's continual banter was a part of the natural environment for her. "The thing is you lot have started a war with the Ori." She paused to glare at Daniel. "Thank you doc." She then went back to her larger audience. "It's early days but the war's already lost. Things are pretty sucky in about 19 years. There is only so much prostrating yourself for hours under the pain of death to pray to a false god that a person can stand without it seriously cutting into their day."

"Doesn't leave much time at all for basic activities like pedicures," Dani said sorrowfully.

"In 19 years," Landry repeated, his tone of voice the one you reserve for crackpots.

"Yeah, I really did say that. We're from 19 years in the future. We came here to see if we couldn't help you tip the balance," Louisa said matter of factly. "Oh and don't ask how we did the time travel thing because we're not at liberty to share that information."

Dani looked artlessly at Cam and said, "I bet you could get me to tell you ANYTHING if you put your mind to it." Despite that promise, the mechanism by which they were able to come from the future and Dani and Louisa coexist with their younger selves was never explained. Daniel always suspected that somehow Oma had something to do with it.

Cam ignored her invitation and spoke up for the first time. "We're certainly grateful for any allies we can find but you can understand the need for being sure of them. Can you actually prove that you're from the future?"

Dani looked at him warmly with an expression of approval on her face. "Always thinking, aren't you?"

Louisa laughed. "We have incontrovertible proof -- our DNA."

"Pardon me," Sam said, "but are you suggesting that there would be that much mutation in nineteen years?" Her tone of voice communicated just how preposterous she thought THAT was.

Dani said, a trifle coldly, "I believe Colonel Mitchell had the floor."

Louisa waved Dani down. "No mutation. It's a matter of who our parents are. When you do the DNA test and establish their identity, it will be clear that these are people for whom there is clear evidence that they weren't together producing children 19 years ago, particularly Dani's parents. This proves the future."

Daniel was very intrigued and Cam immediately said, "That's really cool. I would never have come up with that one in a million years." Sam sniffed. She was still annoyed with Dani's rudeness.

Landry said, "So let's stipulate that we get the DNA testing results and they are as you say. What is it you think you can do to help us against the Ori?"

Dani said, "We're real good at kicking Prior ass." She leaned back and crossed her arms, communicating the concept "'nuff said."

Louisa filled in the blanks, "We can do all that crap they do with the rod without the rod. So you have like a face off with them and we shut them down. Nineteen years from now it's too late for that but now, when they're just getting started, we might be able to help you get the edge. Keep worlds from being won over. We also think that if we worked with your scientists and they studied how we do what we do, they might be able to come up with some anti-Ori techniques."

"And how," Cam asked, looked straight into Dani's eyes which were only inches away from his own, "do you kick Prior booty?"

"Well, it turns out that if you mate an ex-Gou'ald with a formerly ascended person, the result is someone with powers that ordinary humans don't have," Louisa explained.

Cam furrowed his brow, "You've lost me. There are a handful of people who used to have symbiotes running around, including Sam, but formerly ascended humans don't just grow on trees. In fact, Daniel's the only one I think we know of."

Dani said, "Bingo. You won a kiss for that. We'll talk about the how and when you can collect it later."

Daniel looked pole axed. "I'm supposed to be your father?" He looked from one woman to the other. "Then who would be your mothers?"

Dani raised her hand. "Vala Monderan."

"Sarah Gardner," Louisa said.

"Noooo," Daniel said. He looked at Sam and said emphatically, "It couldn't be true, really Sam."

Dani snorted. "Surely you aren't denying said boffing?" Daniel looked uncomfortable.

"When were you supposedly …" Sam started to ask awkwardly, not looking at Daniel.

"I told you she was too straight-laced for discussions of conception. Not to worry, dear stepmother," Dani said, "it already happened before the two of you got together. That must have been pretty recently since you're being very discrete although I caught the quicky footsy under the table."

Louisa took pity on Daniel who was looking fairly distressed by now. He wasn't the kind of man who liked the idea that he had daughters who appeared to be somewhat estranged. She looked at him and said, "We're not close but it isn't your fault that you weren't around to give us Barbies for Christmas."

Dani interrupted, to say, "I always wanted a pony. It's not too late," she said to Daniel with mock hopefulness.

Louisa shook her head. "My mother didn't tell you I was yours because she didn't want to mess with shared custody or any interference at all in how she raised me. Dani's mother dumped her on someone for a couple of years immediately after she was born and right before she came back here for that whole bracelet debacle. She had her own reasons for not sharing."

Sam was finally able to produce words and gasped, belatedly, "Stepmother?"

Daniel said, past worrying about who else was present at this point, "Is that such a terrible thought -- that we would get married? All those alternate realities with Jack and you're spacing out over the possibility that there's a reality where we might get married?"

Cam looked at Dani, torn between amazement, amusement, and the beginning of a powerful but confusing attraction. He always thought that Vala had a spark even though she aggravated him almost as much as she did Daniel. And this, interestingly enough, was her daughter?

Landry was pressing the heel of his hand against his forehead. At just that moment, there was another unscheduled off-world activation. Dani jumped to her feet and said to Louisa with more affection than irritation, "We should have known she'd tag along." They all joined Dani at the window to watch a pretty teen with long blonde hair come through the gate. She wasn't in black leather which was just as well since she was years younger than Louisa and Dani. She looked up at the crowd in the window and waved cheerfully.

Louisa announced to the group, "And that would be Selma Carter-Jackson, our little half-sister."

Dani had positioned herself next to Cam and whispered, "She's a sweet kid but believe me, you're going to like me a whole lot better."

The exploits of the Three Musketeers, as they later came to be called, became legend. Despite their fame, this first meeting was never fully described to anyone outside the room until Cam penned his memoirs in very old age. He wrote that, though he waited until Dani was 21 before allowing the inevitable to finally take place between them, he had known that first day that his destiny and Earth's had already been set. 


End file.
